The 25th edition of “Gunijan Sabha” presented jointly by the Ustad Imamuddin Khan Dagar Art & Culture Society and the Dagar Archives Jaipur in collaboration with the India International Centre held at the IIC auditorium recently, was dedicated to the memory of Dr. S. K.Saxena, philosopher, musicologist and aesthete and Ustad Rahimuddin Khan Dagar.
The two day seminar-cum-performance event, focused on ‘Indian Classical Art Forms: Validating some Aesthetic Concepts’. There were lectures on traditional Indian miniature paintings and Mughal arts by the Padmashri awardee Shakir Ali, ‘Figurative art - a narrative to Indian Sculpture by Gagan Vij, on Alap & Rhythm in Dhrupad by Dr. Manjula Saxena and her own perspective on aesthetics in Kathak by Prerana Shrimali.
MANGALORE, 13/07/2013: Poet, Critic and Culture-Activist, Ashok Vajpeyi, giving away lecture on ‘Poetry’ at SDM Law College, in Mangalore on July 13, 2013 orgnised by Kavita Trust. Photo: H.S. Manjunath
Eminent literary and cultural critic Ashok Vajpeyi, who was in conversation with Manjula Saxena on the role of poetry in music, opined: “I guess poetry and music must have born together, because Samaveda is poetry and music both at the same time. Gradually they would have parted ways.” Vajpeyi explained ‘Laya, Chhanda (metres), Avritti (repetition) and Maun (silence) are common in music and poetry both, even memory plays an important role in both. The devotional poetry of the ‘Bhakti-Yuga’ had directions by the poet themselves about the ragas in which the Pada had to be composed. It was only in the 20th century that poetry, visual arts and theatre became ‘modern’ and music and dance remained classical. Although the visual arts have Ragamala series paintings.
Vajpeyi pointed out that although classical music has a rich treasure of compositions but most of them could not be said to be classy, except for the poetry of Sur, Tulsi, Kabir, Meera and Raskhan, etc, which have been composed and sung by some musicians. He also cited Pandit Kumar Gandharva saying: “Words should not interfere too much with music because music expresses itself through ‘swara’.”
This was an important statement by Kumarji, as far the Hindustani classical music is concerned. One should remember that primarily it is the raga which is being elaborated through the Sahitya/Bandish and not vice-versa. This is why the composers are called ‘Vak-Geya-Kara’ or Vaggeyakara, a person who is well versed with the words that are ‘geya’ (could be sung), hence he should have equal expertise on words and music both. Anyway, he concluded with the saying ‘All arts aspire to become music ultimately’.
The evening performances featured Ajay Prasanna in a flute recital on the inaugural evening and Ustad Bahauddin Dagar in a Rudraveena recital the next evening. It was preceded with a power point presentation on ‘Rudraveena; a musical journey over the past five centuries’ by Prof. Suneera Kasliwal, Dean Faculty of Music & Fine Arts, Delhi University. She could have reached the audience better, if she would have explained the points, instead of reading the lecture from a written paper.
Winning over rasikas
Ud. Bahauddin Dagar played a contemplative aalap in raga Yaman matching the serenity of the instrument and the musicality of the evening raga. His Rudraveena , totally devoid of artifice, reaches the hearts of rasikas from the very first note, transporting them to a state of bliss and fulfilment. His reposeful Aalap-Jod in Yaman had deep sounding meends and gamakas for the imaginative musical sequences with neat and tuneful meandering through the lower octave. The detailed aalap was followed with a Dhrupad composition set to Chautala where Dr. Anil Chaudhary joined him on pakhawaj and provided an ideal support, although the tanpura accompaniment was conspicuously missing.
When requested for another piece, he said: “I will not play but show you something”. And then what he displayed was simply unbelievable.
Proving his point
‘Shadja’, which is supposed to be an ‘achal’ or immovable swara, was proved by him movable according to the raga it was being employed in. He proved his point by practically playing/showing it on his Rudraveena. He displayed six different positions of shadaj by pulling ‘meend’ on ‘baaj ka taar’ or the string he was playing, counting one, two, three….that sounded actually different. Then playing sequences from different ragas he used the shadja according to the need of that particular raga, and the discerning audience were awe-struck!
